9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 146 - Necessary Evil (3)

While they were busy making plans.

“Look at this. We’ll establish a round base like this, with watchtowers built in a ring formation around the perimeter. Of course, we can’t recruit Fael’s tribespeople or other elves as guards. There would be extreme backlash. Instead, let’s deploy staff members. Focus on mixed-bloods who are less conspicuous.”

Lucas’s eyes seemed serious at first glance, but were actually sparkling mischievously as he spoke.

“When recruiting workers, we should basically give preference to family unit applicants. When people have a lot to protect, their hearts grow weak. It means they’re easier to control.

Conversely, if some incident breaks out, they might become violent to protect their families, but such things shouldn’t happen if possible. Unless there’s a major conflict approaching combat with the elves.

Even if fighting or riots do break out, we can easily suppress them. That’s why we’re building the watchtowers. Just sending one or two people with guns up there would easily give us the advantage… What’s with that expression?”

“No, continue, Lucas.”

Looking at the bewildered Daniel, Lucas chuckled.

“You’re thinking it’s cruel, aren’t you?”

“You know me well.”

“Of course I do. It’s not like I want to do cruel things.”

He let out a long sigh.

“Daniel, we—that is, you and I, Fael and Namir—are doing something truly absurd.”

Lucas’s voice sounded somehow angry.

“We’re establishing a nation. Even if the population is less than one-tenth of Schufaben’s, even if the land is larger but has no proper facilities to be found anywhere, even if it’s a nation that must hold its breath and hide from the continent’s attention for a while. Still, it’s a matter of returning rightful territory to a people. For such work…”

“Blood cannot help but flow. I know, Lucas.”

“Right, that’s it. I’m not doing this crazy stuff hoping for riots or wars to break out either. On the contrary, I’m devising the best way to respond when such disasters occur. And methods to prevent disasters too.”

“Methods to prevent them? Besides selecting by family units.”

“There are many. First, fostering patriotism and pride among the workers. We’ll have to deceive them that the Great Desert will become Schufaben’s land. It’s the most fundamental part of this plan. And making it possible to place ‘uncivilized’ races like elves beneath their feet.”

“Are you serious, Lucas?”

“No, of course not. I mean make them think that way. First, it’s an undeniable fact that Redan Company bought the Great Desert, so we need to widely publicize that part.

Of course, we’ll have to thoroughly hide the fact that we agreed to give shares to the chieftains and that we’re establishing a nation. We’ll probably have to do quite a bit of accounting manipulation too. Though that’s already routine…

And make it seem like we’re using elves for very cheap labor. We need to use elves for unimportant menial tasks. Show glimpses of elves working. But we’ll thoroughly segregate elf workers from human workers.

Conversely, from the elf side, they need to understand that humans looking down on them is ultimately foolish. The capital they produce will be used to establish the elves’ nation. I’ll leave it to your judgment who to hide this fact from and who to reveal it to.

This is a kind of massive theater performance. Keep that in mind. It’s all one big deception. Ah, of course it’s also unethical and cruel.

But no one gets hurt. The workers are happy because they earn money, the elves are happy because they get their own nation, and I’m happy because I can repay my debt to Fael. So it’s a good swindle.”

Lucas, who had rattled off this speech, giggled.

Daniel suddenly wondered when Lucas had gone insane. And where he had learned all these ideas.

If he said he’d thought of them himself, that would be truly frightening.

“If disasters still occur despite all that preparation, what should we do?”

When he asked probingly, Lucas stared at the ceiling and muttered.

“Then… we’ll have to think of ways to use them.”

***

“Now I can see the mine!”

Namir called out cheerfully. Daniel, who had been burying his nose in his notebook, straightened up and looked outside the hot air balloon.

The scene around the mine was becoming quite organized.

The road to the mine was strictly controlled, and staff members moved between the densely clustered quarters.

“Once we bring in mining machinery, things should open up a bit.”

Fael, leaning against the basket, spoke up.

“Won’t it take quite a while to recover the initial investment?”

“As you know, Daniel, I’m not doing this work to make money.”

Currently, Redan Company was, objectively speaking, in tremendous crisis.

Though they were perfectly hiding it from shareholders through accounting manipulation, there was an enormous gap between income and expenditure.

The cost of buying up all the land in the Great Desert, developing it, and feeding and clothing 10,000 workers was astronomical.

The income from real estate business was almost entirely consumed by maintenance costs for the Redan Company building in Lüdelheim District 13 and various management support funds.

So all the funds currently being used in the Great Desert were essentially flowing from Fael.

Fael owned several high-rise buildings including a luxury hotel in Lüdelheim, and he conducted other businesses that Daniel didn’t know about.

‘Did he tell Lucas about them?’

While idly curious, he let Namir’s chatter wash over him.

“Reduce the fire, brother! We need to land exactly there, at that landing pad.”

Namir pointed to the open ground between the mine and the quarters.

The first hot air balloon flight was quite successful.

Since they couldn’t always drag around a giant dragon, this was a method Namir had suggested, and it was going smoothly enough.

When Fael magically reduced the fire, the balloon began slowly descending toward the ground.

That’s when it happened.

“Humans, get out of our land! Traitors to your own kind, get out too!”

A faint, blood-curdling scream could be heard.

The moment an eerie chill swept through his entire body, Fael stretched out his hand and shouted.

“Duck!”

Blue mana extended from his hand. The mass of mana enveloped the entire hot air balloon.

KABOOM!

By a hair’s breadth, hot energy shot up from below as the balloon vibrated slightly.

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

“Urgh! Ugaaaah!”

Daniel, who had been crouching with his head covered, looked outside the balloon and froze solid.

The peaceful residential area, the firmly packed sandy ground, was stained bright red.

One leg of a man lying face-down, whether dead or dying, was in tatters.

An elf covered in blood could be seen struggling as he was dragged away by staff members.

“Ugh…!”

Namir, his face pale white, dry heaved. Daniel quietly patted his back.

***

“Uegh! Uurg! Ugweeeeeh!”

Namir buried his face in the toilet, retching violently.

One hour earlier.

The hot air balloon had landed on the landing pad a short distance from the blood-soaked ground.

Fael, Namir, and Daniel rushed to the scene. More precisely, Fael dragged Namir, who had no strength to resist from all the dry heaving.

“You can’t avoid this!”

He yelled at him.

The scene before their eyes was horrific. Several times worse than what they’d seen from the sky.

The thick smell of blood stung their noses, and flies that had already swarmed were flying around noisily, buzzing.

“The, the, the victim?”

When Namir asked while trembling, a staff member politely bowed his head.

The Redan Company staff members—that is, the Bletter members—respected and cherished Namir but didn’t revere him.

The beloved Fa-Elhar’s family. A trustworthy colleague and superior. But someone who was often careless and needed looking after, like a younger brother. That was about it.

“One severely injured, thirteen lightly injured. The severely injured person was quickly given first aid and is not in life-threatening condition.”

“Ha, ha.”

A pained sigh flowed out from relief and disgust.

“Then what about the perpetrator…”

“We gagged and bound him, and have him in custody.”

“Let’s take some time first. Calm the witnesses and make sure no rumors leak out. Don’t stop the work. But double-check anything the perpetrator brought with him.”

While Fael efficiently gave orders, Namir just stood there panting beside him.

After the staff dispersed with their orders, Fael looked back at Namir.

“You need to go comfort the victim.”

“Me?”

“You and Daniel. You follow along pretending to be a staff member.”

Namir understood. Since Daniel was officially Redan Company’s president, he naturally had to go, and Namir, despite having round ears, had dark skin, so he had no choice but to disguise himself as staff.

“Got it…”

Namir answered weakly and headed to the temporary infirmary with Daniel.

In the small hospital room was only a bed covered with neat white sheets, and a dust-covered man lying on it.

“Liam Weber.”

Daniel looked down at the man who wasn’t in his right mind from painkillers.

A sturdy jaw and prominent nose, sunken eye sockets, and dark brown hair. The typical appearance of a Schufaben person.

He didn’t know what work he’d done before coming to the Great Desert, but his body was strong and sturdy, making it awkward that only his right leg was cleanly severed from the middle.

It was at least fortunate that they’d already finished surgery and stitched it up, with thick bandages wrapped around it.

“We’ll have to make him a prosthetic leg.”

His voice was low but calm, as if his heart was heavy. Namir was confused about how he could maintain such composure.

Daniel firmly grasped the trembling man’s hand.

“Mr. Weber.”

“Pr-president…”

“I’m sorry.”

Tears streamed down from the large man’s eyes.

“That bastard, that bastard used a b-bomb on my leg…”

“Shh, shh. I know.”

Daniel wiped away Weber’s tears with a pitying expression.

“This is all our oversight. I’m truly sorry.”

At Daniel’s gentle voice, Liam cried like a baby.

“I, I thought it was an earthquake at first, but my colleagues beside me were screaming, and sob, but my leg, at first I didn’t even realize I was hurt and tried to stand up, then I saw my leg was gone…”

Listening to the sobbing Liam was more painful than imagined. Daniel sat beside him and just listened.

“I, I’ve lived my whole life with just my body. I was a physical education teacher, you see. I was sturdier than anyone, but now…”

“How frightened and bewildered you must have been. The perpetrator was immediately arrested and is now under strict surveillance in isolation. Once again, I’m truly, truly sorry. On behalf of Redan Trading Company, I sincerely apologize.”

“Urgh, ughhh…”

Now Liam was sobbing too hard to answer properly.

“All treatment will be provided free of charge, and we’ll prepare compensation for damages as well. This won’t completely restore your life, Mr. Weber, but I hope it will ease your mind somewhat.”

“Sob, I don’t need money. Just that bastard…”

Looking at Liam’s eyes burning with fury despite being wet with tears, Daniel smiled bitterly.

‘Use it, Daniel. Whatever incident breaks out, you can use it.’

“Ugweeeeeh!”

Namir, who had thrown up the contents of his stomach once more, collapsed weakly on the bathroom floor.

He couldn’t tell what was making him sick.

“Humans are ruining our homeland!! Don’t you understand that?! You’re pretending not to know! You’re all traitors who sold out your own kind!!!”

Was it the perpetrator’s words as he was dragged away that were disgusting?

“Half-breeds aren’t human! That damn bastard threw the bomb while smiling like it was nothing! If someone hadn’t shouted to run, I would have been torn to shreds!”

Or was it the hate-filled curses of the worker who witnessed the scene that were disgusting?

“Please rest now, Mr. Weber. We’ll take care of your family.”

Or was it Daniel’s shamelessness in comforting Liam that was disgusting?

While staring blankly at the ceiling, someone knocked on the door.

“Namir? Are you still feeling nauseous?”

The door burst open and Fael strode in.

“Brother.”

Namir called to him in a choked voice.

“What’s wrong?”

Fael unhesitatingly grabbed his neck and pulled Namir to his feet.

“Gah! Why are you doing this!”

“What are you doing right now? How long are you going to sit there weakly throwing up?”

“But!”

“You’re the next chieftain of the Fa tribe. You can’t waste time like this.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

He looked at his brother with anxious, trembling eyes, unable to hide them.

“You need to meet the terrorist.”

“What?!”

Namir’s body convulsed once.

“Why me?!”

“Aren’t you curious? Why he committed such an act. What he’s thinking. If that guy’s thoughts are twisted, you need to persuade him yourself, Namir.”

“But he’s a terrorist! A man who almost killed someone with a bomb! How can I face such a frightening person?!”

When Namir resisted, Fael smiled faintly, an eerie smile.

“Namir. Do you know how many humans I’ve killed?”

“Uh…”

“What about Daniel? Lucas? Erika and Oscar? Even Georg, who’s around your age. What do you think is the difference between them and that terrorist? That man is scary but the White Raven Order and Bletter aren’t scary?”

“…”

Namir kept his mouth firmly shut. Then, after a brief silence, he muttered weakly.

“Give me a little time.”

***

It had been over a day since he was locked in the dark warehouse where little light entered.

Ashtard had spent that time in hellish agony.

His seething anger had transformed into regret, fear, and despair.

‘How many humans died?’

‘Was this the right thing to do?’

‘What kind of retaliation will I face?’

‘Why are they just keeping me locked up without saying anything?’

‘What if they capture my family too?’

His uncle had died. It was an act committed in a fit of rage over that grief.

Of course, the cause he had shouted was sincere. But the motive for the terrorism was purely personal revenge.

That ambivalence made his head spin.

When Ashtard was exhausted from tension and hunger and slumped over.

The firmly locked door opened.

A handsome but somewhat young man with brown-tanned skin and round ears entered hesitantly.

“Hello, Ashtard. Won’t you… talk with me for a bit?”